Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

COPENHAGEN MARATHON

In pictures: Temperatures soar as 13,000 run 2019 Copenhagen Marathon

Copenhagen's annual marathon took place for the 40th time on Sunday, with up to 13,000 Danish and international runners taking on the 42.2-kilometre/26.2-mile challenge.

Published: 20 May 2019 09:38 CEST
In pictures: Temperatures soar as 13,000 run 2019 Copenhagen Marathon
Etalemahu Zeleke Habtewold of Ethiopia wins the women's marathon in Copenhagen. Her finishing time of 2:29:29 is a new course record in the women's field. Photo: SpartaBilleder/Copenhagen Marathon

A new course record was set in her field by Etalemahu Zeleke Habtewold, who won the women's race, while Jackson Kebet Limo of Kenya smashed the course record for the men with a time of 2:09:54.

Limo, 31, subsequently told the Copenhagen Marathon website that the victory represented the most important win in his career.


Jackson Kebet Limo won the men's section. Photo: Ólafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix

Prior to the race, event organisers reported that over 13,000 amateur runners were registered to take part, beating the previous record participation from 2010.


Runners line up at the start of the marathon. Photo:Ólafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix


Photo:Ólafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix

As the course snaked through six of Copenhagen's neighbourhoods, the city's residents, helped by a series of entertainment 'power zones' organised by the event, made sure of a lively atmosphere to help push the runners towards their goal.

Photo:Ólafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix

Video: Ester Rose Wadsworth


Photo: Sparta/Telenor Copenhagen Marathon


Photo: Camilla Hylleberg Photography/Sparta/Telenor Copenhagen Marathon

An overcast start to the morning quickly developed into a warm, early summer day, with temperatures reaching towards the 20s in degrees Celsius pushing runners to their limits towards the end of the 42.2-kilometre course.

Photo: Camilla Hylleberg Photography/Sparta/Telenor Copenhagen Marathon

The Local was also represented in the event, with Denmark editor Michael Barrett finishing a tough race in just under 4 hours.

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

Almost there, Michael Barrett, our @thelocaldenmark editor running the @cphmarathon ?

A post shared by The Local Denmark (@thelocaldenmark) on May 19, 2019 at 4:08am PDT


Photo: Camilla Hylleberg Photography/Sparta/Telenor Copenhagen Marathon

READ ALSO: What you need to know about the Copenhagen Marathon

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ENVIRONMENT

Danish running events take tentative steps towards cutting out plastic

Balloons and water cups are among areas in which organizers of Danish running events say they want to cut down on plastics use.

Published: 13 June 2019 16:36 CEST
Danish running events take tentative steps towards cutting out plastic
People line up for a half marathon in Copenhagen in 2015. File photo: Nikolai Linares / Ritzau Scanpix

The organizers of the Aarhus City Half Marathon recently announced they had changed plans to release thousands of balloons prior to this Sunday’s running event.

The decision marks a public recognition by organizers that high-participation sports events like marathons and half marathons can have a negative environmental impact, and that a change in approach is necessary to offset this.

In a country in which the environment was a major priority for voters in the recent general election, it has been necessary for endurance running events, at which thousands of plastic cups are used, to consider their approach.

“We want to lead the way when it comes to more environmentally friendly running events,” Birgit Schultz, head of communication for Aarhus Motion, which organizes the city’s half marathon as well its DHL Relay team running event, told The Local via email.

Chloe Malinka, a marine scientist at Aarhus University, welcomed the decision to drop balloons from the Aarhus City Half Marathon.

“Plastic balloons cannot fully break down in the environment, and these microplastics end up lodged in the stomachs of animals, contaminating our waterways, and infiltrating our food chain,” Malinka told The Local.

Malinka pointed out that two Danish municipalities, Fanø and Varde, have banned the release of balloons from municipal institutions, as Danish media Ingeniøren reported last year. A sizeable number of local authorities in the United Kingdom have taken a similar step, as have four US states, according to that report.

Copenhagen Marathon did release balloons at its 2019 edition, but as a one-off occurrence, said Dorte Vibjerg, director of race organizer Sparta.

“It was one time only, and only because of our 40th anniversary,” Vibjerg told The Local via email. The balloons released at the marathon were biodegradable, she added.

But Malinka said balloons categorized as biodegradable also presented a hazard for wildlife.

“The degradation of these biodegradable balloons only occurs under specific composting circumstances. This degradation is also a slow process, whereby the balloons have the opportunity to be mistaken for food by seabirds, seals, and whales and the balloons end up clogging the stomachs of animals, all before they have the time to degrade,” she said.

In a press statement earlier this month, Aarhus Motion confirmed it would not release balloons while also acknowledging it faces other challenges in order to reduce its overall environmental footprint.

“We can’t change everything at once, so we have decided to look at certain areas in which we can reduce plastic use. That will include removing (plastic) water bags from water stations and instead donating the 25,000 kroner we normally pay for the bags to Danish environment organization Plastic Change,” event manager Jeanette Bøye Sørensen said in the statement.

Finishers’ t-shirts for this year’s half marathon will also be supplied without plastic wrapping.

The Aarhus event, which expects 11,500 to 12,000 runners to participate on Sunday, uses card for half of its drinks cups and a chalk-plastic compound for the other half, Schultz said.

“All the cardboard from the packaging and all the plastic bottles will be recycled,” she said.

Approximately 180,000 plastic cups were used during the 2019 Telenor Copenhagen Marathon, organizer Sparta confirmed to The Local.

The event is working on a way of improving the material used for cups at the event’s drinks stations, Vibjerg said.

“We already cooperate with the InnovationLab of Sports and Copenhagen Municipality about different solutions, (including) new cups made of biodegradable material. But the cups have to work, and we haven't found the right product yet,” she said.

Sparta will test new products at the DHL Relay events it organizes later this year with a view to rolling them out to its other events, the Sparta director said.

“We are looking for more green solutions on everything from medals to t-shirts — maybe they don't have to be mandatory,” she added.

READ MORE: In pictures: Temperatures soar as 13,000 run 2019 Copenhagen Marathon

SHOW COMMENTS